As a faucet apparatus that spouts and shuts off hot and cold water with an adjusted temperature and flow rate, there has been conventionally known an electronically controlled faucet apparatus having an operating unit for operating a spout water flow rate and a spout water temperature of a faucet, an operation detecting unit that outputs an attitude of the operating unit as an electric signal, a flow rate adjusting valve that adjusts a spout water flow rate, a temperature adjusting valve that adjusts a spout water temperature, and a control unit that drives the flow rate adjusting valve and the temperature adjusting valve in response to an output of the operation detecting unit, wherein the operation detecting unit includes an acceleration sensor that detects the attitude of the operating unit, as described in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2009-97222), for example.
In the conventional faucet apparatus described in Patent Document 1 like this, a so-called joystick type operation is possible, which rotates an operating lever that is the operating unit in multiple directions around a fulcrum, and the acceleration sensor contained in a distal end of the operating lever outputs an attitude such as a tilting state and a rotating state of the operating lever to the control unit, as an electric acceleration signal.
Subsequently, the controlling unit receives an acceleration signal outputted from the acceleration sensor, calculates an angle of elevation in the vertical direction and an angle of rotation in the horizontal direction of the operating lever, drives at least either one of the flow adjusting valve and the temperature adjusting valve based on the angle of elevation and the angle of rotation, adjusts the spout water flow rate by the flow adjusting valve, and adjusts the spout water temperature by properly mixing hot water and cold water by the temperature adjusting valve.
Here, in the conventional faucet apparatus described in Patent Document 1 mentioned above, the acceleration sensor provided in the distal end portion of the operating lever detects an acceleration that acts on the operating lever based on the gravitational acceleration, so that in the state where the operating lever and the acceleration sensor perform a rotating movement within a predetermined plane that tilts with respect to the horizontal plane, for example, the acceleration sensor can detect the attitude and the rotating movement of the rotating operation unit based on the change in the gravitational acceleration acting on the acceleration sensor.
However, in the state where the operating lever and the acceleration sensor are stationary within the horizontal plane and in the state where the operating lever and the acceleration sensor are rotating within the horizontal plane, the acceleration sensor cannot accurately detect the attitude and the rotating movement of the operating lever, because the acceleration sensor can detect only the gravitational acceleration, and cannot detect the change in the gravitational acceleration in both the states, and there arises the problem that it is difficult to perform accurate flow adjustment operation and temperature adjustment operation of hot and cold water by the operating unit.
Moreover, the acceleration sensor is provided in the distal end of the operating lever in the conventional faucet apparatus described in Patent Document 1 mentioned above, and therefore the acceleration sensor can be easily influenced by vibration and the like from outside, and easily generate noise such as a disturbance of the acceleration signal, so that there is the problem that it is difficult to ensure detection accuracy of the acceleration sensor.